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BLS - A balance between service and cost for small to medium businesses

Hello, we are a new Web Design and Maintainance company, our aim is to provide affordable flexible web solutions for business and personal users.
Our slogan is simple - continuing development, constant care - that is our aim; to stay ahead of the iNet game so you don't have to.

Websites are now fundamental to the way we live and work and are the principal way to connect with people, if that connection is not available you might be missing opportunities to grow.

We believe that we offer a service ideally suited to the small business or dedicated individual, balancing expenditure and the need for personal service and support.

We also know how the internet works and our search engine optimisation can give your website the best chance of being ranked by internet search engines such as Google.

Online business is now the most cost effective way to grow your business.

Websites are now the principal way to connect with people, if that connection is not available you might be missing opportunities to grow.

5 Reasons you might want to start a website:

Establish A Presence

Approximately 2 billion people (March, 2011) worldwide have access to the World Wide Web. No matter what your business is, you can’t ignore 2 billion people. To be a part of that community and show that you are interested in serving them, you need to be on the WWW for them. You know your competitors will.

Grow your business

Whether you are international, national or local every business can use more customers. Use the power of the internet to access new markets and keep your current customers up to date. As your online presence grows, you can upgrade your plan for more features.

Make information more easily available to customers

What are your hours? What do you do? How can someone contact you? What methods of payment do you take? Where are you located? What is today’s special? Next week’s sale information? If you could keep your customer informed of every reason why they should do business with you, don’t you think you could do more business? You can on the WWW.

Do business 24 hours a day.

The biggest advantage of company websites and online shops is that they are open 24 hours a day all year round. Thanks to the availability of the Internet, when your business is generally closed, potential customers can still view your site, make enquiries or shop.

Company image.

Whether you sell products or services online or not, in today’s world you have to have a corporate presence on the Internet. Otherwise, as you must have noticed that people simply don’t take your business seriously if you tell them that your company does not have a website. A nice corporate site definitely increases the image of a company especially if it has great product or service related content to go with.

Reasons you might want to start a personal website:

Personal and professional development

A personal website is a great tool for individuals to promote themselves, share their ideas and interests, and exchange knowledge with people all over the world.

A personal website improves your chances of being found by making you more visible in search engine results. People searching for you by name as well as people looking for your skills will be more likely to find you.

For years, prominent authors, musicians, politicians, and other personalities have used websites to raise their profiles and provide a place to showcase their careers. Having your own website sends a message that you care about your professional image, and good, relevant content shows you put time and thought into your job.

You can also use a personal website to keep in touch with family and friends abroad or showcase your family accomplishments.

First Impressions Happen Online

According to Google, 80% of people research others online before meeting them for the first time. That number jumps to 95% when talking about employers researching candidates.

A beautifully-designed and well-written website gives you the best chance of making that crucial first impression a great one. Let your personality shine by making personal connections with your peers. Whether it’s a shared hobby, life philosophy, or experience, making some sort of connection with your audience reminds them that you are a real person.

Websites give you a chance to talk about your interests and experiences in a way that is difficult to do on a blog or resume, and gives visitors a number of chances to make those important connections.

A website isn’t static it’s dynamic, ever-changing; the moment you accomplish something, you can add it to your website.

A Website Gives Your Content More Attention

Research has shown that people spend more time on websites than they do on a given social networking profile. Without distractions like ads, third-party branding, and other users’ profiles competing for visitors’ attention, you can take your time to explain yourself and what you are looking for and have the message stick. Having an informative, well designed website also sends a message that you take your career seriously—and employers will take note

Focus Your Online Persona

Making yourself available on social media is great for attracting potential employers, but it’s rather limiting in how well you can present your personal brand. You can link all of the connections you make via social media to your website – your virtual home, a convenient spot where an employer can find out all about who you are and connect to you.

It is also much easier for you and your contacts to deal with one link instead of several. You can include a link to your website on your business cards, e-mail, and all social media networks, and invite people to connect with you.

Grow your business using the world wide web

Ten percent of all UK purchases are online

At present, UK consumers spend around one pound in every ten online, including food and non-food retail, according to the Office of National Statistics.
New research suggests online shopping is to grow by 50pc over the next five years and will account for one pound in every seven spent by UK consumers in 2018.
It is likely theses trends will be reflected in other countries. Approximately 2 billion people (March, 2011) worldwide have access to the World Wide Web, all potential visitors to your site.

Be Discovered

The rapid adoption of touch screen tablets and smartphones has moved online shopping into the living room. The ability to browse on smartphones wherever you are, and social media, has made online shopping a much more immersive and interactive experience than it was only a few years ago, when more shoppers tended to be restricted to desktops typically located away from the living room.
Smartphones and tablets are often used in stores or while travelling to check prices, availability and product details. If you are not there to be discovered you risk being overlooked.
Websites and online shops are open 24 hours a day all year round. Thanks to the availability of the Internet, when your business is generally closed, potential customers can still view your site, research your products, make enquiries or shop.

Cost Effective Advertising

You can have pages and pages of information about your company and your products or services – in much more detail than would be cost effective in more traditional media.
You can change the information on your website whenever you want, no more outdated marketing material.
It is no longer necessary for clients to make a personal visit or call the secretary to research a company. A well designed website will give visitors a positive impression about your company.

Product Profile - Your Website as a Marketing Tool

Showcasing or selling your products through an online presence is often a great way to expand your business.
Your website costs a fraction of traditinal brick and mortar premises and can reach many more people local, national as well as international.

Company Profile

Last but by no means least, good web presentation builds the best and the most coherent image of your company.
Your website has a powerful impact on a potential customer's confidence in you. A professional design, well-written copy, helpful product information, and good contact info can tremendously increase trust in your company. It lets people know you're knowledgeable and up-to-date.

Bespoke used to mean Expensive… But now a Custom Solution can be Affordable!

What is Custom Design?

Traditionally custom web designs start from scratch with a blank sheet. The design team and client specify the website requirements and the programmers and graphic artists create the site usually iterating through a series of mock up stages.
No templates, no pre-packaged graphics. Extensive experience in fine art and graphics arts and the use of creative ideas can enhance the websites presence and create a unique experience.
This is often seen as the opposite of working with a set of pre-design templates from a repository and only customizing logos, changing a background, and moving a few links around.
In reality the difference in the results created by the two approaches is often small and hinges greatly on the quality and scale of customisation that is available within the templated site.
However at some point the templated systems must reach a limitation - this is when custom design comes into play at Business Link Systems.

When is a Custom Solution Appropriate?

Whilst we appreciate that there are a great many styling options available for you to build your own website we understand that there are a great many businesses who for various reasons do not want to take part in a DIY exercise;
some simply cannot afford time away from their core business, for many it is for the plain and simple reason that they would like to “speak to a real person”.
We are able to talk through individual or company website requirements, give advice on the options available and tailor a bespoke solution no matter what the challenge.

Is it Possible to have a Bespoke Design at a Reasonable Cost

By building onto the existing content management system it is possible to leverage cost savings compared to the blank sheet approach.
Whilst there are limitations to this approach in practise they are minimal and do not impact on the look or feel of the website while offering speed and efficiency savings.
Effectively the custom website builds on the existing content management system (CMS) which does most of the 'heavy lifting' by creating the site infrastructure.
The 'custom' design extends or overrides limitations of the CMS allowing greater freedom of expression for less programming time.

Maintaining and Upgrading Existing Websites

Already own a website that requires maintenance or updating? Depending on your situation we may be able to assist you in bringing your website up to date.

The correct service for the small to medium business -
We believe that we offer a service ideally suited to the small business or dedicated individual; less initial outlay than the boutique design studios and more personal service than the hosting supermarkets.

Focused on being found -
SEO - search engine optimisation - our in-house content management system has been specifically built to represent your website in the best possible way to internet search engines. This, along with the content of your web pages, can make your site highly ranked and visible in search engine results.

Continuing care -
Hosting and update services - unlike some web design studios who charge an initial fee then take no part in the maintenance we allow for a small ammount of update time each month. This is normally sufficient to cover text or image changes or minor alterations to the look and is all that most websites need until a major facelift is considered necessary.
You know what your payments are and what services you have paid for.

Keeping up with the changes -
The internet and related technologies are continuously evolving and changing, bringing new opportunities and sometimes breaking existing websites. We are in the business of keeping up with these changes so you don't have to - no more outdated websites.

Responsive Design

Your website is how you are represented to the world online; it’s a brochure for any potential customer, client or contact. Anywhere and at any time they can view and decide whether your company, product or image is the right one for them. Therefore it is essential that your web site practices good web design techniques which will enable your site to get the maximum amount of traffic and make the maximum impact.

At the same time the way websites are viewed is constantly changing:

The Web has gone Mobile. More users are accessing the web from more places on more devices than ever before with widely varying screen resolutions and sizes. The challenge is to represent the website content to its best advantage wherever it is rendered.

Accept Browser Choice: The days of a single browser dominating the market have gone for good; many website users regularly use different browsers for desktop, tablet and mobile devices and can change or update their browsers easily and quickly – from a design point of view this is a moving target.

Can it be Done? How is it possible to have a single website that can be viewed on a 27” high resolution desktop monitor and a 9” tablet?
Responsive Web design offers a solution by implementing an approach that states that design and development should respond to the user’s behaviour and environment. The response is based on screen size, platform and orientation and uses fluid grid layouts, flexible images and CSS media queries.

As the user switches from their desktop to tablet or phone, the website responds to accommodate for resolution, image size and scripting abilities; the website should have the technology to respond to the user environment, enhancing the viewing experience. As a bonus this greatly reduces the need for a different design and development phase for each screen size or resolution.

Key Points

Content can be created once and delivered to multiple devices maintaining continuity and reducing cost

The user experience is the same no matter which device accesses the site's content – within the limitations of the device obviously

As consumers increasingly use mobile devices to shop, responsive design can ensure this activity is familiar on a desktop, phone or tablet
With over half of the UK's population now owning a smartphone or tablet, content must be optimised to reach out to the largest audience

Screen Sizes, Devices and Viewers

The Internet is Everywhere - In your pocket and on your wall.
Some time ago, web site designers knew the exact dimensions of work they were commissioned to do and clients knew how this work would be viewed.
However, with the emergence of smart phones, tablets, gaming consoles on HD TV's and monitors with vastly different sizes, aspect ratios and resolutions, this certainty is gone.

What is the Best Fit? It’s not surprising that responsive web design (RWD) has evolved as an attempt to solve usability problems that have come about due to the various devices used to browse the Internet.
While RWD is powerful it is not magic and design considerations still have to be made regarding the target viewing platform.
This largely comes down to undestanding your product, the target audience and their likely viewing habits:

Your audience and your site?

What is the most likely viewing device - this will help determine the optimised screen size

If you decide a desktop resolution is best for your site then decide which parts might be obtrusive when viewed in a smart phone or tablet

If a mobile solution is best for your site then decide how to fill out the extra space when viewed at a higher resolution

Does your website benefit from the use of large images

Does your website target quick glimse viewing on a smart phone

When visualising your website it is important to decide how you want the site to look on your preferred device; ask yourself what is the most important dimension for you, the height or the width of the available area in the browser?

The height might be more important if you want your site to fit the screen without the need to scroll down (no vertical scrollbar),
if you want a particular image to be wholly visible or if you want a particular section of text to be readable without using the scrollbar

The width might be more important if your site contains long text paragraphs or lots of information on the page making scrolling necessary
but you want to fit an image or your site navigation cleanly within the available width.

Other Considerations

The orientation in mobile and desktop devices might to portrait or landscape

Not everyone maximizes their browser.
If you have decided a desktop resolution of 1024x768 is optimim for your site, you may be find that your pages require horizontal scrolling when they are being viewed at that resolution on a browser window that is not maximized. 800x600 might fit their browser window better.

Browser Chrome.
Browsers subtract as much as 50 pixels on the right and left, and 200 pixels on the top and bottom for things like scroll bars, toolbars, and the container of the window.
This is called browser chrome and reduces the effective display area.

Email:

Enquiry Form

Know the Rules – In a nutshell

Be honest - Do not lie or seek to deceive, do not engage or promote criminal activities

Be fair – Do not use published materials to bully or harass individuals or groups

Be polite – Do not use offensive language or publish offensive images on a public website

Basically, our rules comply with the appropriate laws and the common sense use and regulation of public websites

Terms and Conditions

Registration and accounts

1.1. There is no age or demographic restriction on the registration of individual user accounts.

1.2. To be eligible for an individual business account on our website, you must be at least 18 years of age and resident in the United Kingdom.

1.3. You may register for an account with our website by completing and submitting the account registration form on our website, and clicking on the verification link in the email that the website will send to you.

1.4. You must notify us in writing immediately if you become aware of any unauthorised use of your account.

1.5. You must not use any other person's account to access the website.

User IDs and passwords

2.1. If you register for an account with our website, you will be asked to supply a valid email address and choose a user ID and password.

2.2. Your user ID must not be liable to mislead and must comply with the content rules set out in Section 10; you must not use your account or user ID for or in connection with the impersonation of any person.

2.3. You must keep your password confidential.

2.4. You must notify us in writing immediately if you become aware of any disclosure of your password.

2.5. You are responsible for any activity on our website arising out of any failure to keep your password confidential, and may be held liable for any losses arising out of such a failure.

Cancellation and suspension of account

3.1. We may at any time in our sole discretion without notice or explanation:

3.1.1. suspend your account;

3.1.2. cancel your account; and/or

3.1.3. edit your account details.

3.2. You may at any time request cancellation of your account on our website.

Acceptable use

4.1. You must not:

4.1.1. use our website in any way or take any action that causes, or may cause, damage to the website or impairment of the performance, availability or accessibility of the website;

4.1.2. use our website in any way that is unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful, or in connection with any unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful purpose or activity;

5.1. You are responsible for understanding Business Link Systems Ltd policies and copyright law well enough to use copyrighted material responsibly and defensibly.

5.2. For any supplied content or user content:

5.2.1. The content supplier is wholly responsible for the content.

5.2.2. Business Link Systems Ltd accepts no responsibility for reviewing the content unless explicitly contracted to do so.

5.2.3. Content must follow our content policy and guidelines. Content must follow our content policy and guidelines, outlined below. Content producers are expected to conduct proper research to ensure that the content presented on their website is in compliance with all local, state, national, and international laws. If Business Link Systems Ltd determines that the content of a site is prohibited, we may summarily remove or alter it without returning any fees that may have been incurred. Business Link Systems Ltd reserves the right to make judgments about whether or not content is appropriate.

Your Content: License

6.1. In these terms and conditions, "your content" means all works and materials (including without limitation text, graphics, images, audio material, video material, audio-visual material, scripts, software and files) that you submit to us or our website for storage or publication on, processing by, or transmission via, our website.

6.2. You may edit your content to the extent permitted using the editing functionality made available on our website.

6.3. Without prejudice to our other rights under these terms and conditions, if you breach any provision of these terms and conditions in any way, or if we reasonably suspect that you have breached these terms and conditions in any way, we may delete, un-publish or edit any or all of your content.

Your Content: Rules

7.1. You warrant and represent that your content will comply with these terms and conditions.

7.2. Your content must not be illegal or unlawful, must not infringe any person's legal rights, and must not be capable of giving rise to legal action against any person (in each case in any jurisdiction and under any applicable law).

7.3. Your content, and the use of your content by us in accordance with these terms and conditions, must not:

7.3.18. cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to any person.

Public Domain and Other Non-Exclusive Content:

8.1. Some types of content, such as public domain content, may be free to use by anyone, or may be licensed for use by more than one party. We will accept content that is freely available on the web unless there is a perception that the content is being used to deceive, however we may request that you provide proof that the submitted material is actually in the public domain.

Offers and Promotions:

9.1. You must clearly and prominently disclose any restrictions on your offer (such as expiration date or limitations on redemption).

9.2. You are solely responsible for improper redemption, fraud, disputes or other issues that arise from the distribution and/or redemption of your offer.

9.3. If your offer may be redeemed at a merchant not operated by you, it is your sole responsibility to communicate with the merchant and ensure they honor your offer.

9.4. You are responsible for ensuring that your offer complies with these terms and all applicable laws, rules and regulations. Offers are subject to many regulations (such as alcohol discounts and offers marketed to minors) and if you are not certain that your offer complies with applicable law, consult with an expert.

9.5. If you communicate or administer a promotion (ex: a contest or sweepstakes), you are responsible for the lawful operation of that promotion, including:

Business Link Systems Privacy, Data and Cookie usage.

Business Link Systems Ltd is committed to the appropriate protection and use of personal information that has been collected through its website. Generally we intend only to collect personal information that is provided voluntarily to enable us to provide information and/or services to those individuals who provide their personal data.

Please review this Online Privacy Statement for information about how we collect, use, and protect the personal information that we have obtained.

Collection and use of Personal Information

We obtain personal information about you that you provide — for example, if you request information, communication, a newsletter or blog. By registering and/or submitting personal information on our website, you are agreeing to the use of this information in accordance with this Privacy Statement. Your personal information is not used for other purposes, unless we obtain your permission, or unless otherwise required by law. For example, if you send us an email message requesting information about Business Link Systems Ltd, we will respond to your request by using your email address, contact details, and other information you supply. If you call us, your telephone and / or mobile number may be collected, including the time and date of your call and any other information you may provide.

IP addresses

When you visit the Business Link Systems Ltd website, we may record your IP addresses for website analytics, which will include information about your computer, your visits to, and use of, the website, your approximate geographical location, browser type, referrer source, length of visit, number and type of page views.

Cookies

Cookies are information files stored on your computer, tablet or phone that help websites remember who you are and information about your visit. For further information (including how to opt out of cookies) please go to the Cookie Policy.

Updates

If you would like Business Link Systems Ltd to update or remove your personal information, please email enquiries@businesslink.biz / use the supplied form

Data security and integrity

Access to your personal information is limited to those who have a need to know. We retain personal information only for so long as the information is necessary to fulfil an individual’s request, meet a statutory requirement or until that person asks that the information is deleted.

Changes to this policy

Business Link Systems Ltd may modify this Privacy Statement from time to time to reflect our current privacy practices.

This Cookies Policy explains what cookies are, how Business Link Systems Limited use cookies and similar technologies on their websites, and what you can do to manage how cookies are used. We are committed to protecting the personal information we collect when you use our websites and other services.

What are cookies?

A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that the website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the website. The cookie will collect information relating to your use of our sites, information about your device such as the device’s IP address and browser type, demographic data and, if you arrived at our site via a link from third party site, the URL of the linking page. If you are a registered user or subscriber it may also collect your name and email address, which may be transferred to data processors for registered user or subscriber verification purposes.
Cookies record information about your online preferences and help us to tailor our websites to your interests. Information provided by cookies can help us to analyse your use of our sites and help us to provide you with a better user experience.

Cookies are either ‘session’ or ‘persistent’ cookies, depending on how long they are stored for:

Session cookies are only stored for the duration of your visit to a website and are deleted from your device when you close your browser;

Persistent cookies are saved on your device for a fixed period of time after the browser has closed and are activated each time you visit the website where the cookie was generated.

What are the different types of cookies?

Essential or ‘Strictly Necessary’ Cookies
These are cookies which are essential for the running of our websites. Without these cookies, parts of our websites would not function. These cookies do not track where you have been on the internet and do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing purposes.

Functional Cookies
Functional cookies are used to remember your preferences on our websites and to provide enhanced, more personal features. The information collected by these cookies is usually anonymised, so we cannot identify you personally. Functional cookies do not track your internet usage or gather information which could be used for selling advertising, but they do help with serving advertising.

Analytical Performance Cookies
Analytical performance cookies are used to monitor the performance of our websites, for example, to determine the number of page views and the number of unique users a website has. Web analytics services may be designed and operated by third parties. The information provided by these cookies allows us to analyse patterns of user behaviour and we use that information to enhance user experience or identify areas of the website which may require maintenance. The information is anonymous (i.e. it cannot be used to identify you and does not contain personal information such as your name and email address) and it is only used for statistical purposes

Behavioural Advertising Cookies
Behavioural advertising cookies, which may be placed on your device by us or our trusted third party service providers, remember that you have visited a website and use that information to provide you with advertising which is tailored to your interests. This is often called online behavioural advertising (OBA) and is done by grouping together shared interests based upon web browsing history. Your web browsing history can be used to infer things about you (e.g. your age, gender etc.), and this information may also be used to make advertising on websites more relevant to you. Although behavioural advertising cookies can track your activity around the internet they cannot identify you personally, even if you are signed in to our website. Without these cookies, online advertisements you encounter will be less relevant to you and your interests.

If you would like more information about OBA, including how to opt-out of these cookies, please visit www.youronlinechoices.com.

How can I manage or opt out of cookies?

Some people find the idea of a website storing information on their device a little intrusive, in particular when the information is stored and used by a third party. For example, you may object to being served advertising which is targeted to your interests based on your browsing history.

If you would prefer to opt out of cookies, it is possible to control cookies by following the steps below, however you should be aware that you might lose some features and functionality of the website if you do so
Cookies, including those which have already been set, can be deleted from your hard drive. You can also change the preferences/settings in your web browser to control cookies. In some cases, you can choose to accept cookies from the primary site, but block them from third parties. In others, you can block cookies from specific advertisers, or clear out all cookies. Deleting or blocking cookies may reduce functionality of the site.

To learn more about how to reject cookies, visit www.allaboutcookies.org or go to the help menu within your internet browser. If you experience any problems having deleted cookies, you should contact the supplier of your web browser.

Opting out of Analytical Performance Cookies

Opting out of Behavioural Advertising Cookies:
If you would like to disable “third party” cookies generated by advertisers or providers of targeted advertising services, you can turn them off by going to the third party’s website and getting them to generate a one-time “no thanks” cookie that will stop any further cookies being written to your machine. Here are links to the main third party advertising platforms we use, each of which have instructions on how to do this:

Web Beacons

If you object to web beacons in emails, we recommend that you follow the instructions for deleting existing cookies and disabling future cookies above. We will still know how many of our emails are opened and we will automatically receive your IP address, a unique identifier of your device or other access device; but we will not identify you as an individual.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie